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White Oleander, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Memory Keepers Daughter, The Reader, I Know This Much Is True, Water For Elephants (current favorite, so so good), The Kite Runner, The Gargoyle, The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake, God of Small Things (another favorite), The Book Thief... that's just off the top of my head, I'm not near my bookshelf. I'm also terrible at remembering author names, but most of these are fairly well known.

i read "King Leopold's Ghost" about a year ago. non-fiction account of the horrible shit that went on in Africa back in the 1800 and early 1900s. AMAZING book, will absolutely change how you think of the world. Tough to read, but so important

I second The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. I just finished reading it and I loved it. May I also recommend Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! by Kenazburo OE? It's kind of a tough read, but totally worth it. I, Etcetera by Susan Sontag was kind of hit and miss for me, but the stories that hit I thought were incredible. And I've never read anything by James Baldwin or Ngugi Wa Thiong'o that disappointed.

For some tolerable and good chick-lit check out the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty. Starts off with the book Sloppy Firsts. Just kind of fun mindless fiction with a good coming-of age tale of a woman.

The best book I read last year was the Children's Book by AS Byatt. I'm terrible at explaining book plots, so I'll leave you to google it, but it was on loads of end of year lists of books of the year.

been reading more non fiction than fiction but i really dug The Clearing by Tim Gautreaux, always re-reading kerouac's big sur and dharma bums and bukowski's work and hunter s thompson's fear and loathing (vegas and campaign trail)... paul auster's oracle night, kem nunn's tapping the sauce and dogs of winter... but like i said, mainly non fiction right now for some reason

Thats my problem too. I'm mostly into nonfiction so when it comes to fiction books I dont even know where to begin. Thanks for all of the suggestions so far everyone!

kami said:

been reading more non fiction than fiction but i really dug The Clearing by Tim Gautreaux, always re-reading kerouac's big sur and dharma bums and bukowski's work and hunter s thompson's fear and loathing (vegas and campaign trail)... paul auster's oracle night, kem nunn's tapping the sauce and dogs of winter... but like i said, mainly non fiction right now for some reason

The Booker shortlists are a good place to find books, it's the big literary prize in the UK, but they tend to actually choose literary books that people enjoy reading rather than worthy heavy ones, so the selections always become bestsellers here.

I mostly read science fiction and graphic novels. Sorta surprised to see Philip K. Dick mentioned by someone who's not me! Anyway, for science fiction I'd recommend PKD, Samuel Delany (especially the short stories, oh they are so good), Octavia Butler, Haruki Murakami, Jonathan Lethem. Some of my favorite graphic novels and comic series are Y the Last Man, the Walking Dead, Epileptic by David B., anything by Jeffrey Brown, Lynda Barry, the Love and Rockets series. I dunno, I kinda think that the stuff I like is not what most zinesters enjoy, but maybe you will!

- In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (or really, any of her books)
- The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
- Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

I could go on and on. I love reading. I've been looking for some good books by people with physical disabilities, but the ones I keep picking up have been disappointing.